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Saturday, January 31, 2015

Jim Leonard Passes Away (11/3)

On November 3, 2014 at the age of 64. He passed away peacefully (with his sister and best friend / chase partner Mike Theiss beside him) after a long battle with cancer and ataxia (a degenerative neurological condition). Jim was one of the most influential and inspiring people known to the chasing community. He has pioneered typhoon and hurricane chasing, as well as mastering tornado alley's storms for many years.

Many of us storm chasers knew about him, and many of us were lucky enough to meet him. In the images above, you can see him hosting his annual storm / hurricane chasing get-together and BBQ in the Florida keys in 2009 and 2010 among many other times (mastering the "grill" as well)! He will not be forgotten and certainly has inspired many ... And now he can be on EVERY storm!

Please take some time to visit my STORM CHASING EVENTS section of my web site, as you can see him in many of those areas. You can jump to these sections by clicking the link for 2009 below...

Hurricane Gonzalo Hits Bermuda (10/17)

Hurricane "Gonzalo" was a powerful hurricane that reached category-4 strength over the tropical north Atlantic in mid October 2014, with sustained winds of 145 MPH. The rather quiet Atlantic season came to life with this storm, which affected Antigua and eventually Bermuda, with the storm eye passing right over the island during the night of October 17 as a strong category 2 storm.

I did NOT chase this storm, but watched the amazing path, with the two images above (IR satellite to the left, and Bermuda radar reflectivity to the right) showing the island of Bermuda (also circled) in the core / eye of the hurricane for some time. Damage was mainly to power poles, signs, and trees on the island - With no deaths, which was very fortunate.

Aerobatics In Extra 300L (10/5)

See a real interesting flight I took on an Extra 300L aerobatic plane at Gauntlet Warbirds in Sugar Grove, IL in early October 2014. This is one of the premiere aerobatic aircraft introduced into this country from Germany in the 1990's.

More about this flight and many others can be seen in the FLYING section of my web site. You can jump right to a video of this flight via the link for it below.